My Heroine
by Duchan Mandic
Summary: After losing his bride in a plane crash, Cody Rhodes has resulted in drugs to cope with his trauma. With Amelia's spirit trying to help him, can he overcome his survivors guilt? Or will he hurt himself for good, just to be with her again?
1. I Should Be Dead

"_I still can't believe you have resulted to taking pills."_ Amelia said while she sat perched on the bathroom counter next to all the pill bottles.

Cody popped another large white pill and walked back into the room and lay down on the bed. He couldn't function without something to wake him up, help him sleep, bring him up, bring him down; he depended on those pills.

"_Don't do this to yourself, Cody."_ Amelia lay down next to him.

He could almost feel her. God, he missed her so much! It used to be every once in awhile he would feel her presence, like when he was barely awake in the mornings. The faint scent of her perfume would bring tears to his eyes, and then it was as if he could feel her nails lightly scratching his back on the same exact spot she always used to scratch. "Where are you?" He asked in a drugged state.

"_I'm right here baby, I always have been."_ She whispered and ran her hand through his tousled hair.

Cody only really felt her when he was drugged up; he didn't care if it was an illusion, all he wanted to do was be with Amelia again. He'd do anything to reach her, even if it meant slowly killing himself with all the drugs. He could definitely feel her now, her hand messing with his hair, her head resting on his shoulder. He raised his left arm and mimicked holding her like he always used to. He remembered the exact way her body fit against his, and once more tears sprang in his eyes.

"_Please don't do this to yourself Cody,"_ She begged, _"You'll find someone new, another girl who you'll marry and have your babies. Adorable and beautiful little Cody Jr.'s running around in a big spacious backyard with a swing set and swimming pool, playing with the family dog…don't kill yourself."_

"Amelia…" He said in a daze.

"_Yes?"_ She asked.

"I miss you. I'll be with you soon, don't you worry your pretty little red head…" He said and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of all the past times he and Amelia had shared.

oo

_It was two weeks after the wedding and Cody and Amelia were on the plane heading back to the U.S. It was a rainy and very windy day. The clouds were low and gray in the sky, a thunderstorm had arrived in Cancun, and a hurricane was threatening the coast. But Cody was determined to get him and his new wife home on time, even though the hotel staff suggested they stay a couple more days to let the whole storm pass and they'd arrange another flight for them. Even Vince McMahon had called Cody and Amelia Rhodes himself and told them it'd be best if they stayed a few more days and he'd send his private jet to get them. Amelia had begged Cody "C'mon Codes, let's stay a couple more days so the storm can pass. It can't hurt."_

_But Cody was stubborn, "I have to be back for RAW by Sunday, and besides I want us to have a chance to stay in the new house for a couple days so we can enjoy it as a married couple." Amelia smiled at her new husband, he was so sweet. "Alright." She nodded, "Off we go then, I guess." And so they made their way to the airport and soon boarded the plane bound for Texas. The pilot managed to get the plane safely in the air and over Texas, but there was still awhile before they reached their destination. As the plane flew through stormy clouds, Amelia clung to Cody and he wrapped his arms around her. "It'll be alright babe. We're gonna make it home, I promise."_

_The forecast said the hurricane was now threatening the Southern part of Texas as well. Cody kissed his bride and started making her laugh to distract her from the turbulence. Amelia has always hated flying and heights but she was willing to go on a plane and travel for the sake of her husband and his demanding job. The whole plane was quiet as they passed through storm cloud after storm cloud with violent turbulence. Soon oxygen masks sprang from the ceilings as a shrill alarm sounded throughout the plane. Amelia screamed at the suddenness and put on her mask after Cody had put on his. The pilot came over the intercom and said they had to make an emergency landing at some tiny airport in a rural town. Amelia once again clung to Cody for dear life as the plane plunged thousands of feet. Everyone's ears popped at the quick change in air pressure and a young boy started crying in the back of the plane._

_Somewhere along the touchdown landing the pilot lost control, and the plane landed roughly on the runway, skidded along the wet asphalt (the tires malfunctioned and refused to come out), and crashed into the side of the hangar. A large pole ended up crashing into the window where Cody and Amelia sat, crushing Amelia against Cody. She screamed as the plane made impact, as did all the other passengers. The plane then jerked around, and Amelia was thrown into the wall and pole. Her head hit the pole, and she was knocked unconscious._

_She was pronounced dead at the hospital. Her head colliding with the pole and the wall of the plane had knocked her unconscious, but the internal bleeding inside her brain is what killed her._

_Cody was also knocked unconscious. When he awoke, he was in a Dallas hospital. His parents and brother were in the room when he woke up, and his father had to tell him the fate of Amelia. Doctors told Cody that if He had been the one sitting by the window and not Amelia, they both would have survived because Cody could have handled the collision better._

_During the autopsy to discover what exactly killed Amelia, they also discovered she was three weeks pregnant._

_Cody never found out what the gender of the baby was, it was too early to know._

_He spent a week in the hospital and several months in physical therapy while also going to therapy sessions for plane crash survivors, and survivor's guilt. He felt that he shouldn't be alive; he should've been in Amelia's place. He should be the one six feet under, not his new bride. She should be alive and well, carrying his unborn child._

_It should've been me, He told the therapist, I should be dead._


	2. I'll Find Someone

"_Why should it have been you, Cody?" The therapist asked._

"Because Amelia didn't deserve to die." Cody caught himself saying this out loud.

"What?" Ted asked from the seat next to him.

He had gone over those therapy sessions over and over again in his head, and he'd often catch himself answering the questions out loud instead. "Nothing." He shook his head.

"No one deserves to die, Cody. What happened, that was a freak accident man…let Amelia rest in peace. You'll be with her again someday, but today's not that day." Ted reassured his friend.

"What're you two talkin' about?" Randy came back from the bar with three more beers.

"Amelia." Cody said. For a second he thought he glimpsed her violent red hair from across the room and straightened his back to get a better look.

"You okay?" Randy asked.

"I thought—never mind. What's the score?"

oo

"_He's killing himself, help him!" _Amelia screamed in Ted's ear, but of course he couldn't hear her. _"Can't you see he's high as a kite right now? Oh God I wish someone would just go into our house and see all the things he's been putting in his body! If you knew Ted, you would help him! If you knew!"_

Suddenly the bar scenery changed into a bright light, as if someone was taking a picture of her and the flash was on. She had been taken back to the Limbo-like place.

"_There's nothing you can do for him. Just let him die. He wants to be with you anyway."_ Brian said. Brian was a spirit who enjoyed making fun of Amelia and tormenting her. He had black spiky hair; he was tall, and muscular. His arms were covered in tattoos. Amelia hated the piercing in his nose. It was a stupid little loop in his left nostril. All the skin that was exposed to Amelia was also covered in tattoos, she wondered if his whole body was inked up. The most tattoos she had ever seen on a person were Randy and Phil. She smiled as she remembered their stupid little "Macho Men" contests they had at the hotel pools and argued over whose tattoos were better.

"_He has to go on living. I have to help him."_ Amelia replied and turned away from him.

She felt Brian's arms encircle her and he placed his head on her shoulder. _"You can't do anything unless there's someone out there who can see us, which there aren't many."_

She shrugged him off of her, she didn't want Brian touching her; she only wanted Cody. "_I can try. There's got to be someone to help him, I just know it._"

oo

Cody gasped as he stuck the needle in his arm and shot the substance through. He looked at himself in the mirror; blood shot eyes with dark circles underneath, growing pale, ignored stubble on his face, profusely sweating every time he took a pill or shot up. He hardly recognized himself.

"Look at yourself, you're a fuckin' mess! Can't fend for yourself, always gotta have someone there for ya you pussy! Can't live without someone so you've resulted in slowly killin' yourself, you're a sad excuse for a human being you know that? You don't deserve to live. You should just speed up the process and get it over with." Cody couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth…did they even come out of _his_ mouth? His lips in the mirror were moving, but he didn't feel them moving…didn't feel the worrisome rumble in his throat that he recently developed…he felt like he was losing his mind as well.

"Without her you're nothing! You're a piece of shit! Can't do anything right! Always gotta be takin' somethin' to help you sleep, to help you wake up, to get you high, to bring you down, pill after pill after pill! Look at yourself! You're a _waste_! Nothing good is _ever_ gonna come outta you! NOTHING!" The reflection in the mirror shouted at him, and started to change into a much older version of Cody Rhodes, a wasted man dying in his sleep, looking much older than he was because of all the drugs he had taken. A black mist grew next to the bed his future body was laying on, and it grew into a form of a tall creature in a black cloak and raised a warty hand over Future Cody's face, and sucked something out of him. His body rose, and fell limply back onto the mattress and started to decay.

"No…" Cody whispered, "NO!" He pounded his fists on the mirror until tiny little shatters started piercing his skin.

"Cody! Cody what's wrong?" Randy had somehow gotten into the house and grabbed a hold of Cody from behind and threw him into the bathtub and turned on the cold water. Cody started to move but then slumped and covered his face. He was too ashamed to start crying in front of his friend.

"Cody—" Randy said as he looked around the bathroom. The place was filthy. All over the counter top were drugs: pills, needles, cough syrup…he guessed Cody had run out of his supply so he tried getting high off of the cough medicine. "How could—"

"I do this to myself? I DON'T KNOW! All I know is that I miss her! I want to be with her, and I'll do whatever it takes to see her again!" Cody shouted, his face growing red from anger and a few tears slid down his cheeks.

Randy knelt to the ground next to him. "Listen man, what you're doing…it's not good. You can't do this, you have to move on. Amelia's in a better place now and I know she'd want you to be happy. Don't do this to yourself." He begged.

"I can't." Cody replied in a hoarse voice, "I want to die. I can't handle life without her. I just want to be with her. WHY WON'T ANYONE LET ME BE WITH MY WIFE?" He shouted once again, and started sobbing. Randy put his arms around him as he shook and sobbed; shook and sobbed. He had to do something. He knew he and Ted would have to tell Vince McMahon what was going on, it was too much for Cody to come back on the road. They had to get him help.

oo

"_See? He's beyond help. There ain't nothin' you can do now, Milly." _Brian smirked from his metal chair.

"_My name isn't Milly!"_ Amelia shouted, "_And I WILL help him! I'll find someone who can see things like us, I get them to get through to Cody, he'll hear what I have to say and he'll be okay….he'll be okay…"_


End file.
